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Sunday, August 31, 2014

If kids help cut up the zucchini, they might eat this Easy Roasted Baby Summer Squash with Feta and Thyme!

(Updated with better photos and step-by-step instructions, August 2014) One of the wonderful things about having summer squash in your vegetable garden is that soon you'll have so much of it you feel perfectly justified in picking them when they're tiny, similar to the baby squash you get in the fanciest of restaurants. I first posted this wonderful recipe for Easy Roasted Baby Summer Squash with Feta and Thyme back on 2007 when I had an abundance of baby squash from my garden, but now that I don't have a garden at the new house (yet!) I buy the packages of baby squash from Costco to make this. If you don't have a garden or a Costco membership you can still make this recipe with larger squash that are cut in strips. Roasting the squash with fresh thyme concentrates the flavor in vegetables in the most lovely way, but dried thyme will also work fine for this recipe.

I re-did the photos for this recipe with my niece Kara and her adorable four-year-old daughter Quinn. It had been a long cooking day and Quinn was getting tired of entertaining herself, so I grabbed a kid-safe knife and enlisted her to help cut the baby squash in half. Quinn has pretty strong food preference, as most kids do at that age, and the whole time we were cutting them up she kept saying "I hate zucchini." But when the finished dish was ready, she surprisingly agreed to take a bite, and even more surprisingly, she liked it and ate a couple of pieces. So if you have kids who won't eat their vegetables, maybe getting them to help cook will help!

Here's the baby summer squash I get at Costco. It's fairly pricey compared to what you pay for squash at the farmers market, but I love the baby squash.

Preheat the oven to 400F/200C while you cut up the squash. Here's how the baby squash looked after Quinn and I had cut the bigger ones in half. (See recipe below for how to cut up larger squash.)

Put the squash into a bowl and toss with the olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, fresh or dried thyme, salt, and pepper.

Spray the baking sheet with oil or non-stick spray, and spread out the squash so they aren't touching each other. Roast for 25-30 minutes, or until they're done to your liking. (I like to keep them slightly crisp.)

While the squash cooks, crumble up about 1/2 cup of Feta (or a little more if you're a big Feta fan.)

Here's how the squash looked after about 27 minutes roasting time. Put on a serving dish, season with more salt and fresh-ground black pepper as desired, sprinkle with Feta, and enjoy!

And here's the original photo of this recipe from back in 2007, not bad at all for those days!

Preheat oven to 400F/200C. Spray a large baking sheet with oil or non-stick spray

Wash squash well and dry. If you have baby squash, cut lengthwise into two pieces. If you have large squash, cut lengthwise into four pieces, then cut away the seed part of each piece and cut into pieces about 3-4 inches long.

In plastic bowl, toss squash with olive oil, balsamic vinegar, thyme leaves, salt, and pepper. Arrange on roasting pan so that the pieces are not touching each other.Roast squash 25-30 minutes, until edges are starting to get quite brown and squash is tender. While the squash roasts, crumble the Feta cheese.

When the squash is as tender as you like it, remove squash from oven, arrange on a serving dish, season with a little more fresh-ground black pepper if desired, and sprinkle with Feta (It won't need more salt because Feta cheese is salty.) Serve hot.

This would be a perfect side dish or meatless main dish for any phase of the South Beach Diet or any other type of low-carb eating plan.

Nutritional Information?

I chose the South Beach Diet to manage my weight partly so I wouldn't have to count calories, carbs, points, or fat grams, but if you want nutritional information for a recipe, I recommend entering the recipe into Calorie Count, which will calculate it for you.

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Posts may include links to my affiliate account at Amazon.com, and this blog earns a few cents on the dollar if readers purchase the items I recommend, so thanks for supporting my blog when you shop at Amazon!

Gracias Kalyn! I just love baby squash---what a delicious idea to add feta. I prepare zucchini muffins with feta or parmesan, eggs, bacon and a little garlic sometimes. Since it has no flour it is perfect for low carb diets :D

I'm so glad people like the sound of this recipe. Sometimes I wonder if my "what I made out of my garden veggies" style of cooking is just boring for people who don't have a garden. This would be truly delicious with fresh zucchini and summer squash no matter how you get them!

This recipe sure is another winner, I got hungry reading it! When my mum started complaining about the zucchini crop taking over the garden, I suggested she use them while still in their toddler stage. No more monster zucchini in her garden. :-)

To answer your concern, Kalyn, I think that your 'what I made out of my garden veggie' is inspiring. Speaking for myself, it has cheered me up in the long weeks of waiting for my garden to come up with something. So yesterday I harvested the first pattypan squash and the first zucchina: nothing to show off as a proud parent, but quite satisfying. Last night I had roasted them together with some companions I bought at the farmers' market. No feta on them, just a mix of herbs from the garden, thyme included, like a sort of vegetable toast to you, your fabulous blog and your successful, almost 2-year old event.

Bea, you must grow some next year if you have a sunny spot at your house. They're ridiculously easy to grow and the little ones are so tasty.

Karina, I saw your grilled veggies, and I love, love the idea of grilled cabbage chunks. Just brilliant.

Simona, thanks so much for reassuring me that my garden experiments aren't boring. It's fun hearing that you're getting to cook some veggies from your own garden. I'm still thinking of ideas for the two year event, but the idea of a personal "challenge" is a great one. I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

Thanks for joining the conversation! I love hearing from readers and even though I can't always reply to every comment, I will always answer specific questions on a recipe as soon as possible. Sometimes I'm answering by iPhone, so my replies may be short!

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